Light on the path
Subtitle: the anthropology and history of the southeastern Indians
By: edited by Thomas J. Pluckhahn and Robbie Ethridge.
Contributors: Pluckhahn, Thomas J. 1966-; Ethridge, Robbie Franklyn, 1955-
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Tuscaloosa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 283
ISBN-13: 9780817315009; 9780817352875
Subjects: Hudson, Charles M; Mississippian culture -- Southern States; Chiefdoms -- Southern States; Indians of North America -- Southern States -- History; Indians of North America -- Southern States -- Antiquities; Southern States -- History; Southern States -- Antiquities
Description: Publisher description: A seamless social history of the native peoples of the American South, bridging prehistory and history. The past 20 years have witnessed a change in the study of the prehistory and history of the native peoples of the American South. This paradigm shift is the bridging of prehistory and history to fashion a seamless social history that includes not only the 16th-century Late Mississippian period and the 18th-century colonial period but also the largely forgotten--and critically important--century in between. The shift is in part methodological, for it involves combining methods from anthropology, history, and archaeology. It is also conceptual and theoretical, employing historical and archaeological data to reconstruct broad patterns of history--not just political history with Native Americans as a backdrop, nor simply an archaeology with added historical specificity, but a true social history of the Southeastern Indians, spanning their entire existence in the American South. The scholarship underlying this shift comes from many directions, but much of the groundwork can be attributed to Charles Hudson. The papers in this volume were contributed by Hudson's colleagues and former students (many now leading scholars themselves) in his honor. The assumption links these papers is that of a historical transformation between Mississippian societies and the Indian societies of the historic era that requires explanation and critical analysis. In all of the chapters, the legacy of Hudson's work is evident. Anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians are storming the bridge that connects prehistory and history in a manner unimaginable 20 years ago._ While there remains much work to do on the path toward understanding this transformation and constructing a complete social history of the Southeastern Indians, the work of Charles Hudson and his colleagues have shown the way.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
"Contains much of the proceedings of a day-long symposium honoring Charles Hudson on the occasion of his retirement from the University of Georgia."
Table of contents: title: Introduction / Thomas J. Pluckhahn ... [et al.]; title: The nature of Mississippian regional systems / David J. Hally; title: Lithics, shellfish, and beavers / Mark Williams and Scott Jones; title: The Cussita migration legend : history, ideology, and the politics of mythmaking / Steven C. Hahn; title: Coalescent societies / Stephen A. Kowalewski; title: "A bold and warlike people" : the basis of Westo power / Eric Bowne; title: New light on the Tsali affair / William Martin Jurgelski; title: "A sprightly lover is the most prevailing missionary" : intermarriage between Europeans and Indians in the eighteenth-century South / Theda Perdue; title: The historic period transformation of Mississippian societies / Adam King; title: Bridging prehistory and history in the southeast : evaluating the utility of the acculturation concept / John E. Worth; title: Raiding the remains : Indian slave traders and the collapse of the southeastern chiefdoms / Robbie Ethridge.